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Old Cigarette Vending Machines Dispense Artwork

Giddy attendees at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas report encountering an old, bright yellow cigarette vending machine. Only instead of smokes, the machine dispenses artwork in cellophane-wrapped cartons.

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The converted cigarette machine is called an Art-o-mat and for a mere $5 you can get a pack of art. Wired.com blogger Roberto Baldwin snapped a photo of one yesterday and wrote, "I only have $3. Sure there’s a metaphor for 4K TVs in there somewhere."

Art-o-mats have been around for a little while now, but they're becoming more prevalent as a way to bring art to the masses in an entertaining way. Back in the late '90s, North Carolina artist Clark Whittington noticed his friend had a Pavlovian response to crinkling cellophane.

"When the friend heard someone opening a snack, he had the uncontrollable urge to have one too," Whittington wrote on the Art-o-mat site. So the artist took advantage of that response, converting a banned cigarette vending machine into an art dispenser, appropriately, for a show at a cafe in Winston-Salem. When the show was over, the cafe owner asked to keep the machine.

In the past several years, Art-o-mats have found homes well beyond North Carolina, from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. They've gone from a one-off to a novelty to a nationwide phenomenon. One even arrived here in Denver last year at the Access Gallery in the Santa Fe arts district.

Gallery owner Damon McLeese stocked it with professional artists' work, as well as works created by teens with disabilities who participate in art programs. Inside the machine, packs contained a wide array such as earrings made from computer chips, beaded keychains and drawings of wolves, according to the Denver Post's Colleen O'Connor.

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I find it hard to argue with the idea of these banned machines finding new lives delivering art with $5 tokens. If everyone bought art instead of cigarette packs and snacks, we'd be a heck of a lot healthier. Possibly even smarter, too.

Photo: An Art-o-mat machine in Las Vegas. Credit: Miss Shari, via Flickr.

The Big Internet Museum: Milestones and Memes

If you were given the opportunity to curate a historical museum about the Internet, what would you include? Now's your chance to add to the collection of The Big Internet Museum, a virtual hall exhibiting the milestones and memes of the 43-year history of the World Wide Web. The online museum project was created by Dutch advertising pros Dani Polak, Joep Drummen and Joeri Bakker.

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The collection begins precisely on October 29 1969, the day when former NASA researcher, Robert William Taylor, launched the ARPAnet operational network for the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The network is widely recognized as the precursor of what we now know as the Internet.

The exhibit concludes with South Korean megastar Psy, whose 2012 song "Gangnam Syle" became the first video to tally one billion views on YouTube.

As you can imagine, the space between those two bookends spans all that is significant and silly about the network platform that, for better or worse, has redefined our lives. America Online (AOL), Internet Relay Chat (IRC), .GIFs, chat lingo, Hyper Text markup Language (HTML), Flash, Google, Facebook -- even Double Rainbow guy -- get equal billing in this gallery. But that's only a smattering of the collection.

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Take a tour here and decide for yourself if each icon is deserving or not. The public is able to vote on whether each "piece" belongs in the museum or not. Or better yet, submit your own idea.

via Gizmag

Credit: The Big Internet Museum

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Thin, Flexible PaperTab to Redefine the Tablet

One of the many things I love about old media such as magazines and newspapers is their flexibility. You can roll 'em up, stick em' in your back pocket, bang 'em around and even use 'em to swat house flies.

New media tablets, on the other hand, require almost a custodial reverence when it comes to ownership. Cases and sleeves are a must for transport and safe keeping, lest it get scratched or shattered. And you can forget about rolling one up in your back pocket or swatting house flies. Unless you want gashes in your drywall.

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Potentially bridging this gap is a team from Canada's Queen's University. They're collaborating with Intel Labs and Plastic Logic to redefine the tablet's form as a flexible, paper-like touchscreen computer called PaperTab.

But PaperTab's flexible form isn't its only innovation. Unlike tablets, which switch between apps on a single display, multiple PaperTabs are designed to be used together. Each tab acts as a window for separate applications, but they still interact with each other. 

For example, when a PaperTab is placed beyond reaching distance, it reverts to a thumbnail overview of the document, like icons on a desktop computer. When the tab is picked back up or touched, it switches back to a full screen view, like opening a new window.

Additionally, PaperTab's interface allows functions simply by tapping tabs together. For example, a photo can be sent via email simply by tapping a tab of a draft email together with a tab of a photo. Even cooler, when that email is ready to go, it can be sent by bending the top corner of the display. Also, placing tabs side by side can create a larger display surface.

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Designers say these functions emulate the natural handling of multiple sheets of paper. This may sound like a cluttered step back, but think how long it takes to back track through a tablet to close out or switch apps as opposed to picking up a piece of paper that's right in front of you.

"Using several PaperTabs makes it much easier to work with multiple documents," Roel Vertegaal, Director of Queen's University's Human Media Lab said on the university's website. "Within five to ten years, most computers, from ultra-notebooks to tablets, will look and feel just like these sheets of printed color paper."

via Gizmag

Credit: Queen's University

Baby Jumper Could Prevent Crib Death

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is every new parent's worst nightmare. To keep a close eye on a sleeping baby, some parents rely on a two-way baby monitor or move the crib into mommy and daddy's room. Others stay awake all night worrying and periodically checking on their infant.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration in Berlin propose a different solution: a suit that monitors a baby's breathing.

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It looks like an ordinary “onesie” or “romper suit” but with a major difference: it has commercially available sensors integrated into the cloth. The circuit board for the sensors is printed on polyurethane, which is flexible, stretchable and comfortable for the child. The polyurethane circuit board is contained in a fabric cover that can be removed so that the jumper can be washed separately. 

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The sensors monitor the movement of the chest and stomach by checking both the distance between two points on the chest and responding to strain. If there is a problem -- if the rhythm of breathing or number of breaths is wrong -- it will sound an alarm. It isn't clear what kind of alarm would sound yet; current proposals are for some kind of visual and auditory alert. It's easy to imagine a wireless system firing off a signal to a smartphone.

The circuits themselves are made of ordinary materials and don’t need any specialized manufacturing methods, so the costs can be kept down. Since the electronics are mounted on the polyurethane sheets  rather than being stitched into the fabric, it’s easier to place the components exactly where they need to be on the circuit board.

The idea is similar the Exmobaby suit that appeared early in 2012. The difference is the use of flexible electronics and that the Exmobaby’s ad copy says it’s designed to track emotional states, not operate as a true medical device.

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There are still challenges to mass-producing the suit. One is that polyurethane tends to change shape during the manufacturing process. Even so a number of companies are testing out ways to build them cheaply. 

Baby safety isn’t the only idea the Fraunhofer scientists came up with for their flexible electronics: they also looked at how to make pressure bandages that tell doctors and nurses where the best place to put them is, and even a bandage that can monitor the health of kidneys.

Via Fraunhofer Institute

Credit: Fraunhofer Institute / VERHAERT Masters in Innovation

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Unlock Your Door With ShareKey

In the last year, I've locked myself out of my home no less than three times. Consequentially, that's resulted in me having to shimmy through open windows like a burglar. I'm surprised my neighbors never called the cops on me.

If only I had ShareKey, a near field communication (NFC) app for a smartphone, I could have avoided all the breaking and entering.

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Developed by Dr. Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi of Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT), the Android app communicates with smartlocks on one's door via NFC, which allows data to be exchanged wirelessly over a short range. To lock or unlock the door, simply wave the phone near the lock.

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Unlike systems such as Lockitron and UniKey that use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to send instructions remotely, ShareKey requires that a phone be physically waved in front of their locks, making it more difficult for hackers to steal the signal.

Better yet, the system allows for any smartphone to be granted access to the doors for a specified amount of time, be it a few hours or a few weeks. House guests, dog walkers and plant waterers all know what a three-ring circus it can be swapping keys and getting them made, so this feature is an added bonus. ShareKey can send these "electronic keys" directly to the recipient's smartphone as a QR code via email or a multimedia text message.

"For instance, I can grant the building superintendent access to my apartment for a short period so that he can open the door for the gas meter to be read while I'm at work," explains Alexandra Dmitrienko from the SIT. “The solution is built around modern security technologies and can be easily integrated into existing access control systems."

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At this year's CeBIT trade fair in Hannover, Germany, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT in Darmstadt will demo ShareKey in an attempt to drum up interest in hopes that it will be on the market soon.

 via Gizmag

Credit: Fraunhofer SIT

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CES 2013: Gorgeous Hard Drive By Philippe Starck

Design virtuoso Philippe Starck's latest project has popped up at CES in Las Vegas: It's a hard drive.

Boring, you might think, but look how gorgeous this thing is. Inspired by the movie of the same name, the Blade Runner is a 3.0 portable hard drive from LaCie that contrasts the sleek aluminum used as a material against the "angular cage-like shell" of the exterior, according to the company. Here's Starck in his own words:

"In my design nothing is useless -- style, symbolism or functionality," said Starck, who design credits include the super yacht of the late Steve Jobs. "In the Blade Runner, the warm interior electronics are encased in a mystifying shell, and the blades are the radiator that cools it down. The suspension gives space for air to circulate around the hard drive, and the metal material increases the temperature conduction."

The front of the drive features Starck's signature plus symbol, which functions as a power button and glows orange when there's activity.

The Blade Runner has a limited-edition run of 9,999 produced. No available ship date yet, but the drive will retail at $299.

Credit: All images, Alice Truong/DNews

Double Revolving Doors Block Armed Intruders

The holidays may have provided a temporary distraction from the Newtown, Conn., massacre, but now that the new year's here, it's time to pick up where we left off. Here's one security company that thinks they have a way to prevent a dangerous intruder from entering a school or any other building.

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It called the Linear Revolving Door (LRD), and it was recently patented by Barbecan Security Systems. The door consists of series of parallel hallways that can be built at the entrance of buildings. Each hallway has two doors that revolve in front of and behind a person as they enter.

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The system is equipped with sensors that keeps pace with one's stride to cut down on the bottlenecking of most security checks. Once both doors close, sensors also check for bombs or firearms. If a threat is detected, the doors move in reverse and push out the potential offender.

Check out this animation to see the LRD in action. Though beware, it's quite hypnotic.

With statements like "Newtown could have been prevented," Barbecan's press release is confident, if not cavalier.

"A guard at a building entrance won't stop a determined and well armed attacker -- especially if they have suicidal motivations," it states. "The LRD portal WILL NOT let an armed gunman enter a building. Period. When a threat is detected, the portal reverses and the potential assailant is backed out of the portal. Gun control is not the answer."

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While some parents of Sandy Hook Elementary school children might beg to differ about that last statement, Barbecan contends the LRD is the new solution that's needed.

"Operation is completely safe," states the press release, "and by adapting to the pace of pedestrian traffic, LRD Portals can be used in high traffic entrances like schools, malls, theatres, stadiums and factories."

via Mashable

Credit: Barbecan Security Systems

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Uncork Life's Symphony With Sound Bottle

Walk down any street and you're likely to encounter a symphony of car horns, sidewalk chatter and the whir of traffic on wet asphalt. If you've ever wished you could bottle all that noise up and easily turn it into an audio remix, Jun Fujiwara's Re: Sound Bottle has got you covered.

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The Tokyo-based Tama Art University student's playful project is a recording device encased in a smoky bottle. Uncork it, record a sound and a flashing light lets you know it's been captured by the audio database. The recording software will create a remix that will playback every time the bottle is uncorked. Each time it's recorked, the Re: Sound Bottle resets and a new remix can be created. If you want to pause the remix, give the bottle a shake.

"I felt something missing in the habitual use of music reproduction media, so I thought to create an interactive music medium that changes," Fujiwara explained on his Vimeo page. "The sounds that are heard all the time every day carry infinite possibilities and help us reaffirm the enjoyment of music. I hope people can experience their own music."

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The design won Fujiwara the Naoki Sakai Prize at the Mitsubishi Chemical Junior Design Awards last year. So far, Re: Sound Bottle only exists as a prototype, but there's talk of a Kickstarter campaign to get the device on the market.

via The Verge

Credit: Jun Fujiwara, Vimeo

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'Print' Records of Your Digital Music

This is hipstertastic: An audiophile has figured out a way to print 3-D records out of resin that play her digital music. It just needs a little fine-tuning.

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Amanda Ghassaei, an assistant tech editor for the project-sharing site Instructables.com, came up with a technique to print some of her Mp3s onto resin records. She started by writing a program that imports raw audio data from the file, performs calculations to generate the geometry of a 12-inch record, and then exports that geometry to a 3-D printable file format, according to the description on her site.

Then, to print the actual records she used an Objet Connex500 resin printer. The resulting resin 33 RPM records can be played on regular turntables. Hat tip to Eric Evenchick at Hackaday.com and Gizmag's Paul Ridden.

The process needs refining, though, because while the songs are recognizable you can still hear a constant whisking and scratching sound underneath them. Ghassaei admits the quality is about a quarter of the original Mp3. Here's her video demo, including songs by The Pixies and Nirvana:

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While it isn't the best audio, I could see 3-D printed records taking off in certain circles once the quality improves. Back in the day, kids poured their energy into mixed tapes. Then there were CD mixes, and now we've got...flash drives I guess. But those feel impersonal. Now a mixed record, that'd be a harmonious blend of the old and the new.

Photo: A resin record made from a digital file using a unique 3-D printing technique. Credit: Amanda Ghassaei

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This Ice-Cold Record Actually Plays

Trust a Swedish band to come up with this one: the new record for the Shout Out Loud's single called "Blue Ice" is actually made from ice. And it plays.

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The process wasn't easy but the indie band from Stockholm produced 10 "secret" kits to make the 7-inch "Blue Ice" record from their forthcoming album "Optica." They're sending kits to groups of fans and press around the world, according to a video showing how it works:

Each kit contains a mold and a bottle of water, along with instructions on how to fill, freeze, and prepare the record. Working with the ad agency TBWA Stockholm, the band came up with a special silicone cast for the ice and determined that distilled water would prevent bubbles from forming that would ruin the track, wrote Jordan Kushins in FastCo.Design.

The song about fading love, which I found both melancholy and memorable, seems to work in the ice format. "You keep fading away, fading away, fading away," the lyrics go. "It always ends in the same way: The sun gets in your eyes."

Watching the video demo, the scratch and hiss heard over the lyrics just added to the sentiments in the song. After one play, the ice record is pretty much done. While an ice record isn't exactly practical, the kits seem to be getting the song a wider audience.

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The band recently wrote on its website that one of the 10 kits was auctioned off by a Swedish radio station. Proceeds went into projects to improve clean water access for children in slums around the world. Now that's cool.

Photo: The ice record playing. Credit: The Shout Out Louds (video)

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